


It's Going to Be Okay

by kadollan



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Medicinal Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-21
Updated: 2012-06-21
Packaged: 2017-11-08 05:32:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/439696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kadollan/pseuds/kadollan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It never occurred to Clint to wonder what it was like for Pepper, Jane, and Darcy to be left at home to wait for word during a mission. Until the day he's wounded and sitting in the kitchen, eating their cookies and worrying about his team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Going to Be Okay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cosmosatyrus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmosatyrus/gifts).



> A gift for my bestie, cosmosatyrus, who was feeling stressed out and worried today. She asked for something sweet, with the prompt "It's going to be okay."
> 
> As always, many thanks are due to my dear beta, cybermathwitch. Thank you darling! Any remaining mistakes are, of course, my own.

"It's going to be okay." Pepper announced, as she prepared tea with precise, economical movements.

"How do you—" Jane's voice hitched, and Clint leaned over to reassure her, wincing as he did so.

"It's always okay, Jane. We're always okay."

At Darcy's raised eyebrow and deliberate glance at the bandage covering Clint's shoulder, he shrugged. And then said several rude words in Russian, followed by some more in Bulgarian. And another in Apache that he'd picked up the summer they'd met. Shrugging was a really terrible idea.

He'd been hit during their last mission, and much to his complete and utter disgust, Fury'd grounded him. And to rub salt into the proverbial wound, Natasha had backed Fury up when Clint had been prepared to go anyway. There was a lot of nonsense about "slowing them down" and "being a liability," but he knew what she really meant was "I'm worried."

It still sucked.

"Language, Mr. Barton." Pepper smiled as she set tea cups and a plate of cookies down between them. 

"Three of them, actually." He nabbed a cookie and waited for her to pour him a cup. 

"We always do this when they go out, if we can," Jane explained. "It's easier when we're together." 

He nodded. It made sense of course -- he hadn't really spared a thought for what it must be like for them to wait at home every time the Avengers assembled. 

Once the tea was poured, he pulled out his flask (always prepared, he should have been a fucking Boy Scout) and added a healthy dollop of Irish. Darcy perked up and nudged her cup forward hopefully. He obliged her with a grin.

Jane gave Darcy a dark look, but she just shrugged. "I'm not the one who needs to avoid alcohol, Jane. Although, frankly you probably have nothing to worry about. I bet that baby will be born with a drinking horn in his tiny fist." 

Jane's face did that goofy thing it did every time anyone mentioned the baby. And what was it about pregnant ladies anyway? One hand slipped under the table to cover a belly that was only barely starting to show. "I am not going to start drinking alcohol on the off chance that Thor's genetics are sufficient to alleviate concerns regarding abnormal birth weight or defects. There’s already so much that we don't know about the risks of interspecies breeding –" her sharp tone was very much in contrast with the sweet look that she'd been wearing seconds before.

Clint put five or six more cookies on his plate. He was seriously considering trying to sneak back to his room -- he really did not want to think about interspecies breeding with Thor, thanks just the same. 

"Oh, For Thor's sake." Darcy said that all the time now, and the worst thing was it was kind of contagious. He'd heard Tony say it last week, and he wasn’t sure the other man had even noticed. "Jane, I wasn't seriously suggesting that you should start drinking. I was _kidding_." 

"I'd like some as well, Clint, thank you." Pepper pushed her cup forward, cutting Darcy off. He gave her a generous measure and set the flask on the table. 

At this rate they might need it.

"So, ah, what do you guys normally do now? What's next?" They seemed to have this down to a science.

"Well, next we reassure one another again that everything will be fine," Jane answered.

Pepper nodded. “It is going to be okay,” she said again.

"Followed by a healthy round of bitching about Thor and Tony," Darcy added helpfully .

"Hey-" "We don't, really-"

He held his hands up, "No judgment here ladies. I bitch about them all the time too. And I'm not dating them."

Pepper and Jane were still giving a smug Darcy dark looks. 

He cleared his throat, "and then?"

"Well it depends," Pepper started. 

"On whether or not you've come back yet," Jane finished Pepper’s thought. "Some missions are over before the first pot's done brewing.”

"Okay, say we aren't…they aren't back. Parcheesi? Poker? Sexy strip poker?"

"We watch the news, if there's any coverage."

"Ladies, Agent Barton," Jarvis' polite and cultured voice interrupted. "The team will be returning shortly. The mission was successful, and all enemies have been defeated, returned to their original exanimate state, or imprisoned."

Clint felt the same relief that he saw echoed around the table. "Any wounded?" He was never going to get used to asking the _house_ for a sit rep.

"Only minor lacerations and contusions, Agent Barton. No cause for concern. Shall I let Agent Romanov know that you inquired?" He would swear that damn computer was laughing at him.

"No, that won't be necessary. " At Darcy's glare he added, "uh, thanks." 

"Of course Agent Barton. If that will be all…?"

"Thank you Jarvis," Pepper answered, as she stood up to clear the cups and saucers. The evidence, he realized. She was cleaning up the evidence.

There was a reason that he had never given a thought to what Darcy, Jane, or Pepper must be going through. The women didn't want them, the Avengers, to know.

He wanted to reassure them that he'd never let on. Who keeps a secret better than a spy? But he didn’t say anything, just helped load the dishwasher while Darcy put the last of the cookies back in the bag. He figured he would keep their secret better by pretending that he never realized he'd been allowed to participate in something kind of sacred. Waiting for the men-folk to get home or some shit, except he was waiting for Natasha. But even so.

The elevator chimed and the noise and chaos of post battle Avengers tumbled into the living room. Tony's voice floated into the kitchen, "I can't believe you fell for that, you gormless-"

"Hey! I am not gormless!" Steve sounded offended, but also amused, so that was good. "I have plenty of gorm. Ask anyone. Steven Gorm Rogers, they used to call me."

Then he heard Bruce’s softer voice, and Natasha’s laugh, and he finally let himself relax. 

"What the hell is gorm?" Darcy asked.

And they were right. Everything was okay.


End file.
